Why Steve Was Late is a book of hilarious (and even - occasionally - plausible!) reasons for tardiness, handily dreamed up by someone else. Here are 101 real corkers for you to enjoy And maybe even borrow... * Overcome by the urge to alphabetise my pets * Forgot how trousers work * Became temporarily feral * Got stuck in a romantic montage

The Penguin English Library edition Many readers would claim that The Adventure of the Copper Beeches or The Man with the Twisted Lip was their favourite Sherlock Holmes story - but then that would be doing an injustice to The Adventure of the Yellow Face and The Problem of Thor Bridge. It is just as well that in the end we do not have to choose - as if we did then there would be no doubt it should be The Adventure of Six Napoleons.

"If readers will allow it, the author of this book will begin with a confession. When he was in college, he did not like history very much. She bored him. And when the taste came to him later, he realized one thing: he was repugnant to the narration of the facts lined up, one at the other end. He had never been told, or had been told only in an agreed and insufficient manner, why the people were waging war and revolutions, why men fought, killed, and reconciled. History was a tissue of dramas without continuation, a melee, a chaos in which intelligence could discern nothing.Is it true that history should be taught to children without their understanding and in order to furnish their memory with a few dates and events? This is extremely doubtful. We would not do otherwise if we wanted to kill interest. In any case, an age comes, and very quickly, when we need a common thread, where we suspect that men of yore were similar to those of today and that their actions had motives Similar to our own. We then seek the reason for all that they have done, and whose purely chronological account is insipid or incoherent.In writing a History of France, we have tried to answer this need of the mind. We first wanted to answer it for ourselves, and for this purpose to clarify, with the greatest possible clarity, the causes and effects. "Jacques Bainville

The 50 most significant principles and styles in architecture, each explained in half a minute. The bestselling 30-Second series offers a new approach to learning about those subjects you feel you should really understand. Every title takes a popular topic and dissects it into the 50 most significant ideas at its heart. Each idea, no matter how complex, is explained using a mere two pages, 300 words, and one picture: all easily digested in only half a minute. 30-Second Architecture presents you with the foundations of architectural knowledge. Expert authors are challenged to define and describe both the principles upon which architects depend, and the styles with which they put those principles into practice. So, if you want to know your arch from your elevation, and your Baroque from your Brutalism, or you wish to top off your next dinner party with a stirring speech on how form follows function, this is the quickest way to build your argument.

You know that Rome wasnt built in a day, but just how did a cluster of small hilltop villages expand to become one of the greatest empires in history? Why did Romulus kill his brother Remus? How was a legion organized? Did people really speak Latin? What entertainment could you see at the Colosseum? And what was daily life like for a Roman citizen? This book takes a novel approach to answering all these questions and more. 30-Second Ancient Rome presents a unique insight into one of the most brilliantly governed societies, where military might and expansive empire paved the way for technological advances that helped shape our modern existence. From aqueducts to sewers, from mosaics to medical diagnoses, this is the straightest road toward understanding the 50 key innovations and ideas that developed and defined one of the worlds great civilizations.